A/N: Hey guys; I'm in a good mood, bored, so here's the next chapter early. Enjoy; I'm so glad you guys like it so far! Please review!

Memories Misplaces

Chapter 10

Bloody hell...!

I watch pale faced as the keepers wrestle control back of the angry mother dragon, straining to reach her eggs. Roaring and breathing fire, the professional dragon keepers somehow are able to drag the Hungarian Horntail back out of the arena.

My hands tingle with the lack of blood reaching them because of the two girls on either side of me hold on so tight.

I shift slightly, uncomfortable under my friends' grips, but they don't notice in their tense wait so I settle down enough to focus on my own concerns as I frown after the keepers and the dragons.

The poor beasts used like this as entertainment... it makes me ashamed of the wizard if world.

Dragons! They should be respected, strong and fierce beasts that rule the skies like back in Merlin's time! Not...prisoners...forced into reservations and used as guard dogs. They were once mighty and proud creatures that couldn't be controlled by anyone...

Subdued, I follow the steady flow of spectators, raving excitedly about the first event of the Triwizard Tournament.

Hermione immediately starts leading me, and in turn Ginny, to the healers tent that had been prepared for the champions.

When she spots Harry, she drops my bloodless hand and throws herself at him in one of her crushing hugs with a squeal. My best friend quickly follows, squishing the two older kids even closer together before backing off a few seconds latter.

"That was amazing!" Hermione exclaims.

"What you did with the broom? Brilliant!" Ginny compliments.

"Er, nice one, Harry," I comment awkwardly, bumping his shoulder with my fist.

"Thanks," he sighs tiredly, running his hand through his windswept hair.

My eyes immediately shoot to the side to gage Ginny's reaction; she used to practically swoon at the action. But her face remains concerned and expectant. Of a friend.

I frown, wondering when her feelings for the boy had changed.

"Hey."

We all turn to regard Ron wearily as he hesitantly walks up.

"Er... I reckon you must be bloody mad to have put your name in that cup. I mean...dragons!"

Harry smiles. I blink and...everything is okay? Really? After weeks of not talking they act like nothing happened.

I see Hermione roll her eyes and I'm very tempted to do the same, but I just let it go with a shake of my head.

It must be a boy thing.

...

A shout has me looking up in concern from the beanbag I lounge in and reaching for my wand on instinct, but I meet the happy face of my best friend as she grins widely at me from over the cauldron cooling on a separate table than the ingredients and fire.

"What is it?" I ask startled, staring at her with wide eyes even as nothing seems to be on fire or melting.

Ginny rounds the table and throws herself onto my lap, mindless or uncaring to the book I have to hastily move out of he way. Her long fiery hair spills over my lap and over the bean bag and to the short distance to the floor as she beams excitedly up at me.

My cheeks suddenly grow hot as she continues to stare at me with her dazzling green eyes.

"It's ready."

"W-what?" I clear my throat, strangely nervous.

"The potion. I just added the last ingredient and it's exactly as the book says."

My answering smile is instant and excited at the outcome of the complicated potion.

"That's great!" I tangle my fingers absently in her hair and, like always, marvel at the softness of it. "When do you think we can try it?"

Her eyes wander to the high vaulting ceiling in thought.

"Tomorrow? It's the weekend..."

I pout slightly, having wanted instant gratification after so long, and to try it tonight.

"Oh, stop that, Kitty," she teases lightly, "You can wait a few more hours. And it might not even work. Even if we take it, it won't make us automatic animagi; it only gives us the dream of our animal to help us with the turn."

"I know, I know," I grumble. "I read the book too..."

She laughs at my brooding, and reaches out to brush her fingers against my cheek affectionately, and it's hard to keep my mood as it is. My hand tightens in her hair in response to her touch, before going limp again as she steals back her hand.

"What are you reading?" She questions, reaching for the book she had almost landed on before I moved it out of the way.

I hand it over without any resistance.

"I love the fairytales the muggles tell their kids..."

"Cinderella?"

I feel my cheeks warm once more when she looks back up at me, and nod with an awkward smile.

"Can you read it to me?"

Her interest has me forgetting my embarrassment and reaching eagerly for the book and flipping to the first page. She shifts and settles more comfortably in my lap before I start reading, and my hand goes back to her hair to pet.

She's quiet for a long time, and once I get to the part of the prince searching his kingdom for the owner of the glass slipper, I stop and glance down to see if my best friend has fallen asleep.

She hasn't. She's staring sightlessly at the vaulted ceiling with a look of concentration and furrowed brows. When I don't continue, she glances over baffled.

"Why'd you stop? Keep going; I want to know what happens to Cinderella and the prince!"

I clear my throat, and with a smile, quickly find my spot on the page to continue the well-known story of the muggle world.

...

"Okay, ready?" I ask, slightly nervous.

Ginny sits across from me in her own bean bag and a cup of swirling purple sludge much like my own.

"Y-yeah," she smiles bravely.

"It won't kill us, right?" I ask anxiously, looking for reassurance from my best friend.

"I don't think so. The animagus revealer potion is just supposed to send us into a dream like trance and gives us hints of what we will be when we finally transform. It's supposed to help us with the overall first change.

I grin at her sounding like Hermione in her nervousness, even though she knows that I read over the same pages of Sirius's book that she did, a hundred times over.

"Alright good enough for me!" I tip the thick potion back before I can loose my nerve, and while not tasting awful, it leaves a slimy feeling down my throat.

"Alex!" Ginny exclaims at my rash and Gryffindor-like move.

I look over at my friend, even as her form starts to become wavy.

"It's fine, Ginny, it didn't kill me."

She hesitates before downing her own potion with a grimace.

The entire room seems to bend into itself, turning orange and green before they melt right into the floor leaving an endless expanse of room and...sky?

I turn and squint into the sun, practically purring at its warmth. My lungs expand, taking in the smell of the prairie, of grass and sun and endless blue. My ears prickle at the sound of wind rushing through the tall grass, and I turn into the breeze, taking in the scent carried by it.

Something alive and strong, and a slow heartbeat drums in my ears, and I bolt. I take off after the scent and fly through the field with a grace that is all my own. I am strong and fast and powerful.

The gazelle startles at my fast approach and takes off in a zigzag bouncing pattern but it is not faster than me, not when I'm on the hunt.

I glide across the ground with little effort, thrilled with the chase, the hunt, the freedom of just running. I can close in at any time to kill it, but that's not what I want; I just want to chase. So I chase, never fully closing the distance.

...

I slowly become aware of the squishy fabric underneath me, and that I am lying on my back rather than running under the endless sun and sky, and I wake with a strange lazy peace in my veins.

I languidly stretch my stiff muscles that hint at the time I spent under the effects of the hallucinogenic potion. A glance shows my best friend just starting to stir as well as she sits up with a momentarily confused expression, before it lightens to a grin and she looks over at me.

"I'm some sort of bird!" She tells me, and I can tell that she's pleased.

I frown slightly as I start to contemplate what I could possibly be. Some sort of hunter.

"I was in the grasslands, chasing a gazelle. I wasn't trying to kill it- just catch it."

Ginny beams at me.

"This is great Alex; the potion worked! Now we can start trying to change!"

My answering grin is immediate and effortless.

I'm going to become an animagus.